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A different type of project


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With the quarantine, I wanted a project to keep me occupied. I had a big empty space over my basement mantle that had been in need of something cool for a long time. With my wife's permission, the basement is officially mine, and I made it aviation themed. So, somehow, I came up with an idea for a big picture, with a twist.

 

I had this picture printed on canvas because the Big E has sentimental value to me. It's 60 inches by 44 inches.

 

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I also ordered 100ft of 1mm fiber optic, various 5mm LEDs, and a set of remote controlled decorative lights that would be the power source. I carefully measured and plotted all the spots for lights on the landing area, the FLOLS, and tower lights. I drilled out each hole and began feeding fiber optic through each one, securing them with hot glue.

 

The first few drop lights.

 

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Round-Down lights.

 

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The meatball.

 

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It started turning into a forest.

 

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I wanted to be able to turn the lights on by remote control, so I ordered these lights from Pier One Imports https://www.pier1.com/pure-white-led-glimmer-strings/PS73156.html . Then I snipped off the lights leaving plenty of wire to attach to the LED's I ordered from Evansdesigns.com.

 

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I began attaching the LED's to the fiber optics using hot glue, and wrapping the connection in foil to reflect as much light as possible into the optics.

 

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Then, when everything was in place, I mounted it above my mantle. During the day, the lights are not very noticeable.

 

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But when the lights go down...

 

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...And it goes dark, it gets kinda cool.

 

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I'm headed down to my basement to enjoy a beverage in the dark. LOL

Edited by Micro
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Thanks, gents. It was pretty fun and a great payoff. While the pics of it look good, They really don't do justice to sitting and looking at it. It was a fun project, and relatively cheap. I recommend it.

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Thanks boys! Thankfully, even my wife thought the same. Since I'm not on FB, she posted a couple pics of it to FB and IG. Possibly the most flattering thing she could have done. :)

 

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